SBJ College: Ticket To Ride

Chip Bowers, the Marlins’ former president of business operations, was back in Charlotte today visiting various departments within SBJ. He certainly comes off as a sharp, outside-the-box thinker. And I’m not just saying that because he went to Appalachian State.

Here’s what is cooking on campus:

SECONDARY MARKET DRIVING NEW BUYING HABITS

• The ease of buying football tickets last minute on mobile is great for fans, but it can be difficult for schools to know who is in their stadium or if they’re maximizing revenue. Jonathan Marks founded Dynamic Pricing Partners to help schools price their tickets according to market demands in the primary and secondary market. This is what he’s watching in the ticket space.
  
  
  • As schools migrate to mobile-only ticketing, that will accelerate the trend of fans buying tickets day-of-game. It’s just easier.
    
    
  • When fans buy tickets on game day, schools miss out on per-seat donations and the game operations staff can feel the crunch if there are a flurry of sales. “We've seen many partners shift marketing dollars to later in the ticket sales cycle because of this buying behavior,” Marks said.
    
    
  • With the growth of the secondary market, more schools are looking at dynamic pricing for the single-game inventory. Those tickets will be priced more competitively vs. static pricing, and prices don’t usually dip below face value. “There are still schools that set single-game prices over a year in advance and cannot change their prices based on performance or demand,” Marks said, making it difficult to maximize revenue.
    
    
    
    

PITARO: SEC NET SERVES AS "NORTH STAR"

Pitaro believes the net has hit its stride in terms of programming around the SEC lifestyle

• ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro says SEC Network’s success boils down to the depth and quality of content. On the occasion of the network’s fifth anniversary, Pitaro and I swapped emails about how the conference and ESPN have benefited. Here are a few of his thoughts:
  
  
  • “What we’ve heard a lot, especially in the past year-and-a-half I’ve been in this role, is that fans view SEC Network as 'our network.' That’s music to our ears and serves as a kind of North Star for us.”
    
    
  • "SEC Network is a live event-driven network, but the programming has evolved. When it began in 2014, SEC Network had three signature studio shows. This fall, the programming lineup has 10 shows as well as 'Saturdays in the South,' an eight-part docuseries. The network has really hit its stride in terms of hyper-serving programming around the SEC lifestyle.”
    
    
  • “SEC Network, that’s really where campus production flourished and we’ve learned a lot, especially from an infrastructure standpoint. The ability to connect campuses with Charlotte and Bristol has given us the opportunity to produce great content together at scale."
    
    
  • "Paul (Finebaum’s) hiring in 2013 gave SEC Network instant credibility. SEC fans could trust SEC Network because they knew they’d have a voice with the Finebaum Show. As the network has evolved, so has Paul’s role with ESPN. His profile has grown nationally and, in turn, Paul has driven awareness of the SEC Network brand."
    
    
    

CFP LANDS SNACK BRAND SPONSOR

• One of the few soft spots in the College Football Playoff’s roster of sponsors was in the CPG category. Dr Pepper, Gatorade and Dos Equis activated at retail, but they were all beverages, so Disney/ESPN, which sells CFP official deals, had made it a priority to find a snack brand that could deliver more of a presence in grocery chains. Cheez-It wound up being that brand, signing a multiyear deal that was announced today. Parent company Kellogg worked with ad buyer Starcom/Mediavest on the deal. “Because the football season is so long, it really lends itself to retail activation in stores,” said Patricia Betron, Disney Senior VP/Sales & Marketing. “This is another brand that sees how live sports drive sales.” Here are the current CFP sponsors below. 

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SPEED READS

• The college football season will kick off without Urban Meyer roaming the sidelines, but Yahoo Sports' Pat Forde doesn't think that will last long. Appearing on the Yahoo Sports College Podcast, Forde said there is a 51% chance Meyer replaces Clay Helton at USC by Dec. 15. "He’s coming back if it’s a good job, and that’s a good job. But he would probably like a new athletic director as well. Somebody who is established and has some gravitas. I don’t think he wants to go in there with Lynn Swann.”
  
  

• An anonymous member of a P5 university reached out to The Athletic's Nicole Auerbach to see what their school could do to increase safety for female reporters after covering night games. Auerbach on Twitter wrote, "I was grateful that they were even thinking about it! But we had a great conversation about options -- members of the athletic department walking us to our cars, better lighting, campus police nearby. ... It's wonderful to know that people are being proactive."
  
  
• Adam Silver sided with Rich Paul in the debate over the NCAA's latest agent restriction. Appearing on ESPN's "The Jump," Silver said Paul has “more than demonstrated that he's a professional negotiator and that he’s a highly trained and competent agent.” Silver: “The best way would be to say there are exceptions that can be made, and he would be a perfect example of that.” Silver said Paul’s life is a “classic sort of American rags-to-riches story." Silver: "The success he is today demonstrates that there are other paths. ... We want to make sure that people from all walks of life can be successful in our system.” 
  
  
• Count Washington State as the in-house favorite for ESPN's Mike Golic Jr. if HBO goes ahead with a "Hard Knocks"-style show for college football. Golic: "Mike Leach and Washington State would be the perfect middle ground. As we see with ‘Hard Knocks,’ if you get too deep, they won’t show it. The blend is don't be too serious and have personality. Step right up, Washington State." ESPN's Jason Fitz: "Between the hair and the quotes, that’s all we ever want from Mike Leach, so it makes sense.” 

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Something on the College beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (msmith@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessdaily.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).